[Natural law, causality and induction: a contribution to theorectical biology].
According to the situation of recent biology it seems to be necessary to continue the theorectical foundation of this science, and especially a foundation beyond physics and metaphysics. The preconditions of such a project are given with the problems of causality, natural law and induction. The discussion of these subjects in modern philosophy of science did not bring useful results, for philosophy of science itself is orientated by physics. On the other hand even the history of these problems in biology shows that the acceptance of physical or philosophical viewpoints leads to invincible difficulties. Therefore, in this paper, I have tried to demonstrate the necessity of analyzing these basic problems in a new way. The conditions and circumstances of a biological phenomenon have a special kind of multidimensional relationship, so that they cannot be reduced to simple linear systems of cause and effect. The fact that biological systems have a lot of retroactive effects make the description of their causality much more complicated than it is in physics. So the natural law in biology is characterized by its relativity concerning the parameters which create the special dependence of a biological phenomenon's constituent parts.
D001695:Biology; D010684:Philosophy; D013598:Systems Theory
Naturgesetz, kausalität und induktion. Ein beitrag zur theoretischen biologie.